Considerate

"If I'm being honest Natasha, all I want is that you are happy." he said.

"You deserve all the happiness in the world, and I'm sorry that I had to be the one to ruin it for you and cause you so much pain and heartache." he said sincerely, his tone sombre.

"That is why I believe that this is the best thing I can do for you to show you have much I mean my several apologies." Dom said.

"All I ask is that you give me some time to pack all my stuff and I'll be gone in an instant. And I also wish that you would allow me to see Joy as often as I want to..." he said sadly and before he could finish his sentence he was suddenly embraced in a shocking hug that he never expected.

Dom just froze as Natasha hugged him. His hands awkwardly hanging in the air. He would be lying if he said that he had expected her to hug him. He was just confused and shocked. Was she hugging him because she was so happy about the divorce or was it something else?

He did not know if he was crazy, but he felt as if the reason for her hug was something else. For one, this was the first hug she had gave him voluntarily in a long time, and it wasn't a cold hug, instead it was very warm. He did not know what to think or feel right now.

"Thank you." she suddenly said as Dom snapped out of his frozen stupour while Natasha broke their hug.

"Thank me for what?" he asked confused.

"For this..." she said as she smiled.

"I would have never imagined that doing this would be in your mind... it says a lot about how truly sorry you feel, thank you for being so considerate." she said as she smiled.

"It's the least I could do." he replied.

"Like I said, everything has been divided amicably, if you want to get your own lawyer to check through the terms, you are more than welcome to." he said.

"No, there's no need for that, I trust you and your judgement, you wouldn't try to take something that doesn't belong to you." said Natasha as she looked through the papers.

"Thank you for that Natasha. My signature is already there. All you need to do is sign it and I can submit it to court." said Dom as Natasha nodded.

"I see..." she said.

"So are you going to sign it now?" he asked, honestly, the sooner they got the divorce proceedings over and done with, the better, it would save them a lot of nasty paperwork and testimonies.

"No." Natasha replied after a quick period of silence.

"No?" Dom asked in confusion as Natasha looked at him and placed the divorce papers back into the envelope.

"I'm not going to divorce you..." she said.

"Or at least, not yet." she said as Dom could not lie, he was painstakingly confused. He had not expected her response at all. He had thought that she would jump at the opportunity of divorcing him with open arms.

"Why not??" he asked utterly confused.

"Well simply because I don't feel like it's time for us to get a divorce yet." she said as Dom frowned in sheer confusion.

"Let me explain." she said.

"Please do." said Dom.

"You and I more or less grew up with our parents staying together." she said.

"We grew up in a normal family dynamic. Your grandparents were together for a long time, and your parents are still together and I have no doubt in my mind that if my parents were alive, they would still be together." she said.

"And I want Joy to grow up with that kind of dynamic." she said.

"Joy is young, and no matter how easy divorces are, she will no doubt be affected by something like that." said Natasha as Dom nodded agreeing with her.

"It doesn't matter how many times we try to reassure her that we split up not because of her but other reasons. It will be seriously difficult for any child to deal with their parent's separation, and I don't want Joy to have to deal with that. I want her to grow up like a strong, happy, healthy child, we don't need to ruin her childhood with all our problems." she said.

"I agree, and I want her to be happy too." Dom replied.

"For now, creating that sort of disruption would only cause her problems, and I don't want my baby to suffer. She loves us being together, even though she can't understand why we love each other. She loves having both her parents around, every child wants that." said Natasha as she smiled and Dom nodded.

"So it's for that reason that I can't divorce you just yet. We'll get a divorce yes, but that will be when Joy is old enough to understand that it's not because of her, but because of us." she said.

"I agree with everything you have said, it's true... but are you sure that you don't want to sign it?" he asked as Natasha smiled.

"I don't want to sign it. I'm not ready to divorce you just yet. I would be lying if I said having the last name White didn't come with privileges." Natasha chuckled while Dom smiled helplessly.

"And no matter how hard we try to keep this a secret from Joy, she will somehow find out. So it's best we don't go that far with our plans yet. But I will keep these divorce papers till when I am ready." said Natasha.

"Of course, you are more than welcome to. Just know that any time you decide that we should go our separate ways, I will be ready." he said as Natasha smiled.

"I know that, so cheer up and stop looking so gloomy." she said as she laughed.

"I can't help it, I feel like you're making a sacrifice again, you are sacrificing your happiness, and I feel bad." said Dom.

"Hey, I'm not sacrificing anything, Joy is my happiness." said Natasha as she smiled.

"And I know that she's yours too. Seeing us together makes her happy, and when she's happy, I'm happy as well, so I don't see this as suffering." she said.

"I've lived with you, I've stayed married to you for six years and I've endured the worst of the worst, I doubt that a few extra years would be a problem." she said as she laughed but Dom could not find her words funny at all.

"Hmm..." he replied.

"Stop feeling bad, I forgive you, I've forgiven you for a long time now. You doing this and showing me how sorry you are makes me forgive you even more than before." said Natasha as she smiled.

"You're a good man above all else, and just because a few problems caused a rift between us doesn't make that untrue. I know you feel bad and guilty, and certainly there were some things that you could have handled better and more maturely." said Natasha.

"But with age comes wisdom and more maturity. Now you know to get to the bottom of everything before accusing anyone." she said.

"So I forgive you and I acknowledge all your efforts to make peace. Life is filled with problems, but we just have to find ways to solve them, so once again, thank you for being kind enough to consider this divorce." said Natasha as she smile honestly at him.

This was the most honest smile she had given him in a long time and Dom felt his heart feeling lighter seeing that she was indeed happy.

"No, thank you Natasha, for being so forgiving. You're a wonderful woman, and a lovely mother." he said as he smiled, even though there was still a hint of sadness in his smile.

"Oh and one more thing, when we get the divorce, of course you would be allowed to see Joy whenever you want." said Natasha.

"And I'm not the kind of woman to stop a man from seeing his child, and I would never demand that you move out of the house. It's as much your house as it is mine, it would make me feel as if I'm kicking you out of your own house, I would never do that, instead while we are settling the divorce proceedings you can still live here, I see no reason for either of us to move out, we are still family after all, and the slower we take things the easier it would be for Joy to adapt to the situation." she said.

"I know." he said as he smiled, it made him happy to know that despite everything, Natasha still considered him family.

"Great, now I am sure that you are late for work, I'll see you later." she said as she smiled.

"See you later Natasha." Dom replied before turning around and walking out of the dining room.